Saturday, August 1, 2015

In a UFC pay-per-view event earlier tonight, women's bantamweight champion and undefeated MMA fighter Ronda Rousey defended her title against undefeated contender Bethe Correia. Rousey is known for her judo--she won a bronze medal in judo, the first American woman to do so, at the 2008 Olympics--and her armbars. Correia's strong suit was supposed to be her striking. Rousey out-struck Correia and knocked her out in 34 seconds.

Rousey is an extraordinary athlete, one so far ahead of her competition--and the current state of the art of women's mixed martial arts--that no one has yet posed any sort of serious challenge to her. It's rare for an athlete to be this completely dominant in any sport--and she continues to improve.

If you're at all interested in MMA, watch Rousey fight before she leaves the sport. It is a privilege to see someone performing at this level.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

and I'm already missing the beach. I thought you might feel the same way, so here's a photo fix courtesy of Gina. The image is a bit melancholy and paints the beach is a less than favorable light, but it's also, at least to me, strikingly beautiful.

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Oh, yeah, Sermon on the Rocks, the album he was recording in New Orleans, is now available for preorder on his site. You can also check out "Getting Ready To Get Down," the first song available from the album on this NPR page.

Sunday, July 26, 2015

As has become tradition, I've photographed all 21 of the movies we watched on DVD/Blu-ray while at the beach. (We normally catch more films, but we also watched three UFC events while there.)

Click the image to see a larger version.

The list tends toward action, because Kyle and I are the only ones who stay up for every movie. We also include whenever possible the rituals of watching Steven Seagal lumber through an action film and getting in the cage with Nicolas Cage.

The award for slowest film of the trip goes to Only Lovers Left Alive, which despite the mesmerizing Tilda Swinton was so amazingly slow that we worried we might be witnessing a vampire-oriented remake of The Assassination of Jesse James by please kill me now I can't watch this movie any longer.

The best entry in the group was also the most surprising: The Voices. Ryan Reynolds is magnificent in it, and director Marjane Satrapi does such a fine job that we were all hoping someone would soon give her a bigger budget. Do not look up information about this movie; just buy it, watch it, and be prepared to be amazed. (If you are squeamish, or if you don't like dark comedies, ignore that advice, and skip it.)